I read this quote on a pinterest board and it resonated with me. Thank you for your kind and sweet words a couple weeks ago in comments and emails- that was very touching and wonderful! Thank you!

I had a more vibrant but pretty ugly background which I totally covered with black acrylic pant and then lifted up some of it again to reveal the background here and there- I stamped and stenciled on top repeating some of the colors in the background and also added journaling to a mono printed water color paper sheet in black and white attached it on top.

Art Journaling is a great way to deal with the good and the bad – it is amazing how much comfort messy hands can bring

Joi@RR

Nat, she may be gone in body, but her spirit and love live on in you, sweet friend. It really is amazing how much comfort creating brings to the soul. As always, your work is stunning and this journal spread is particularly poignant. Love and hugs! xx

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A couple months ago I was looking for some little bowls or plates that I could use for dropping of my bling in the evening but nothing really made me truly wanna spent money as colors or shapes weren’t what I was looking for.

So I remembered a tutorial that I had seen a long time ago on Pinterest on using Paper Clay and Lace to make your own little bowls and decided to give it a try with my newly arrived Stamp Sets. The Paper Clay I used doesn’t need any firing or heating and just air dries. Easy peasy

For this bow I rolled a piece of Paper Clay to a little ball and then rolled it out with a rolling pin to a flat wonky circle. I then stamped into the clay with some of my Kaffee Klatsch Stamps. You don’t need to press to hard to get a nice sharp impression. I found a bowl where I liked the shape on the bottom as a guide – since I wanted mine to be not a high bowl and a bit quirky – and pressed the top onto the clay to cut out a nice circle. Next I formed the clay circle into the bottom of the bowl. I let everything in the bowl dry for 12 hours and then carefully took the new paper clay bowl out. Since the moisture in the paper clay mostly is evaporated by then it shrinks a bit so that it is easy to get it out of the template bowl. It was still a bit moist on the bottom since now air could get there so I just put the paper clay bowl upside down and let it dry for another 12 hours.

I did the same steps with this plate – just using a plate as a template and the Fiesta Stamp set for the Impressions

Once they both were dry I used Liquitex Soft Body paint thinly over the surfaces, waited a couple seconds and then using a paper towel rubbed some of the paint off again, so that the impressions were more colored and more prominent. That way the texture really popped off. For the plate I used two colors to and blended them. I painted outside of the bowl and the bottom of the plate and then everything dry again. I applied some Liquitex Transparent Raw Amber Acrylic Ink over the circle impression of the bowl to have it pop up even more and to give it some patina and let that dry again. To finish everything off I coated the bowl and plate with Liquitex Pouring Medium which gave it a nice shiny glossy and glass like look and feel. I coated it twice leaving a couple hours in between for curing.

Done Hope you like this little crafty fun project – I also made some christmas ornaments using the same technique…there is a lot of potential in this – you just have to play . Here is the full supply list:

The technique of painting on unprimed, raw canvas is most often associated with artists such as Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler just to name a few.

Color-field artists poured, dripped, or brushed thinned paints onto the canvas that soaked through the surface and stained the fabric, creating a velvet-like appearance.

Join me in exploring fun techniques of staining and painting raw canvas and open a whole new creative world to apply these techniques on stretched canvases, pillow cases, bags and home decor items or even clothes.

And a reminder that the 21 Secrets Art Journaling Workshop starts in April 2015. You can still sign up for this downloadable Workshop which is contains actually 21 workshops by 21 Artists . You will download an eBook which contains written text, loads of videos and photos. I am super thrilled that I was asked to participate.

For me art journaling is visual story telling. It might not be a story that everyone can read but I can read it and that is all that counts. All my stories consist of many viewpoints and layers – thoughts, emotions and the story itself. I love to express the complexity of a story by building up layers and dimension through various techniques and texture.

In this workshop I would like to walk with you through my art journaling process. I will show you various layering techniques and I will tell you why and how I am doing what I am doing.

Join me in telling a creative story within a story.

How much does it cost?

Right now the PRESALE is happening !

Note: The link that I am using to promote 21 SECRETS is an affiliate link and I will receive a small percentage of any student who registers through my link. If you want to register, and want to support me as an artist it would be wonderful if you would consider registering through my link .

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Artist Statement

I am a self-taught mixed media artist, born in Germany and currently living in Jersey City, NJ.

For the last decade I have been exploring the possibilities of creating dimension and texture by layering different materials and paint media. I have worked in art journals and on canvas, incorporating collage and found objects.

For me, creating art is a dialogue between my skills and the supplies I use. It is not so much a battle as an ongoing attempt to work out the connections between ideas and techniques.

In my mixed media canvases I emphasize urban subject matter, especially gentrification. I depict the vibrancy as well as the decay that I see in the cities around me from multiple viewpoints, represented by layering and tactile dimension.